Mcdonald Tales: (Ep. 1-26) 1833-1892

Summary

These 26 episodes of McDonald Tales re-examine the early days of the McDonald family in the Oak Creek valley of the Southern Missouri Ozarks with an eye toward better understanding the strong commitment the family had to “The Homeplace” over more than a century and how the land was accumulated and consolidated into the farm that was the subject of “Back to the Homeplace,” the first novel of The Homeplace Saga.

Daniel McDonald married Jane Truesdale, a strong and independent woman, and the stories here are told from their perspective and that of their son, William, the grandfather of Mildred (McDonald) Bevins who created the “Back to the Homeplace” novel’s infamous ‘video will.’ We examine their little family closely and share how they related to extended family members as well as members of their community. Along the way, these episodes in their lives add depth to the overall Homeplace Saga series of family saga, historical fiction stories.

Reviews

The cover image is taken from the author’s personal collection of photographs that he took, personally.

Preface

This ebook is a compilation of the 26 episodes of McDonald Tales first published online at: http://hubpages.com/@homeplaceseries.

These stories are a part of the larger works of the author known as The Homeplace Saga series of family saga historical fiction stories, based at: http://thehomeplaceseries.blogspot.com/

The McDonald family is the core family in the community in this series of stories. The 26 episodes of the McDonald Tales is from the viewpoint, primarily, of Daniel and Jane (Truesdale) McDonald and their son, William McDonald. The provide new insights into the many families and characters of The Homeplace Saga set in the southern Missouri Ozarks, from 1833 to the present day. The McDonald Tales stories extend the stories of The Kings of Oak Springs storylines to 1892. Episode 26 ties this sequence of stories to the 20th Century novels and stores of ‘modern day’ Oak Springs and The Homeplace.

Each episode (or chapter) in this series is about 1,200 words so that they may be read with only a short time commitment, but, we hope, will allow you to learn about the characters and learn to love them, as we do. We hope you will want to read more about them and the neighbors with whom they interact.

Stop by the HubPages site for the latest episodes, and, stop by the home blog, referenced above, for the latest information on The Homeplace Saga generally, found on various media platforms. Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

You can also visit William Leverne Smith on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/William-Leverne-Smith/100836503289407

and also see The Homeplace Chronicles for occasional updates at:

https://www.facebook.com/HomeplaceSaga

Episode MT1 - Daniel was the youngest

How Daniel came to be

Daniel McDonald was born to Laura (Wallace) McDonald and her husband, Henry, in July of 1838, in their little log cabin in the east valley of what came to be known as the Oak Creek valley, in the Southern Missouri Ozarks near Oak Creek. The live birth had followed another difficult pregnancy that itself had followed several successive miscarriages. Daniel was born sixteen years, to the month, after his older brother, Harry.

Laura, whose family claimed direct descent from Sir William Wallace, of the famed War of Scottish Independence, was a strong-willed woman. Belief in her perceived ancestry kept her going, through her many trials and tribulations as a frontier wife and mother. This was just one more of the challenges she faced. She was determined that Daniel would take his place beside his pioneer father, Henry, and his older brother, Harry. Laura gave the baby, and soon, young boy, everything she had in the way of love and nurturing to assure his survival and growth in this lonesome valley. The books in their home were treasures that she read to him and he soon was reading them himself.

Henry and Laura had been one of the three first families to travel on foot and with two-wheeled ox carts from the Big Piney River lumber camps to this virgin valley in 1833. Young Hugh Truesdale had come with them, as well, and he had soon married Victoria Patton, daughter of Jake and Kate Patton. Jake was the blacksmith, and he chose to set up his blacksmith shop a few miles to the west, in the central valley, on a stream there. Robert and Susannah Baldridge were the third family. They came to build a mill at the fall of Oak Creek, about a mile to the west and north, with their children, Sarah and David. Hugh Truesdale had built his cabin, for he and Victoria, about a quarter mile up Oak Creek, west of the McDonalds.

Harry McDonald and Sarah Baldridge, about the same age, each born in 1822, were married in 1842. A bedroom was added onto the McDonald cabin, and Henry, Laura, Harry, Sarah, and Daniel, now a four-year-old; all lived and worked together on their farm. Henry and Harry had also begun regular freight wagon runs back to the Big Piney area, for their own extra income and as a service to their growing community. Cooperation among all residents had been a hallmark of the settlement from the beginning, and continued under the leadership of Jake Patton, and buy-in by all the other settlers. There were now also settlers in the west valley as well as more in the central valley. A village, later named Oak Springs, was growing up around the blacksmith shop and general store, opened by the Patton’s.

The Truesdales were the nearest neighbors to the McDonalds. Victoria had given birth to a daughter, Jane, in 1837. Their son, Lewis, was born in June of 1843. The McDonalds soon added another bedroom on their cabin, as Caroline was born to Harry and Sarah in 1843, followed by Thomas in 1845 and Patrick in 1847.

One May morning, in 1848, Laura did not wake up. She had died in her sleep in her 47th year. Laura was the first adult death in the valley. [The spot where they buried her, on a knoll just south of Cardinal Corner, along Oak Creek, on the east end of the McDonald land, eventually became the Oak Creek Township Cemetery].

Daniel and Jane

Sarah (Baldridge) McDonald became the ‘mother-figure’ in the McDonald household following Laura’s passing, of course. She had her own three children and soon added a fourth, another son, Alex, in 1849. Daniel McDonald, now 11, appreciated Sarah’s efforts but he got nowhere near the attention he had continued to get from his own mother. Before long, another relationship developed. Jane Truesdale was just a year older, but, with girls maturing faster than boys, she soon became close friends with Daniel. She lived just down the road, and the families had always been close. They had one other thing in common that drew them together, to talk about their situations. With the arrival of Lewis, Jane’s younger brother, her parent’s attention had shifted away from her to him, at least in her perception.

Jane already realized, even at 12 or 13 years-of-age, that she was smart and strong, and strong-willed. She also realized quickly, however, that as the first child in the family, any negative reference about her younger brother to her parents got her in trouble, not him. Daniel, 16 years younger than his brother, essentially a first or only child, also, for practical purposes, after talking about it with Jane, realized he faced a similar situation with his little cousins in their household, even though they were not his siblings. Jane and Daniel, then, formed a bond at that early age that lasted them a lifetime.

Over the following eight or nine years, Jane and Daniel each carried out their family duties in fine style, each in their own way so as to earn approval of the adults in the families. However, they also continued to get together and talk, and share their experiences, so that they each grew, internally, more then those around them likely realized. No one was surprised, when they got married that June of 1859. The surprise, to outsiders, was why did they wait so long? Between the two of them, however, the maturity they gained by waiting just came natural within the long-term relationship they had established.

Life around them had not stood still, either, during those years. Harry and Sarah had added two daughters, Mahala in 1852, and Rebecca, in 1855. They had built a new home, in the center of the original McDonald 640 acre farm, with a lane leading a half-mile out to the Houston Road, the main east-west road across the valley.

Jane had a younger sister, Nellie, born in 1950. The Truesdales had remodeled their family home with her arrival. From the fall of 1851 through May of 1854, Jane Truesdale attended the Davis Academy for Girls in Jefferson City. This experience both confirmed Jane’s sense of self worth and added to her sense of worldliness. In spite of the odds against it, this experience strengthened her relationship with Daniel rather than having it draw them apart. She shared much of her experiences with him in nearly daily letters, while she was gone as well as on her return. His return letters were strongly supportive and kept her in touch with activities in the valley and with their families.

Hugh and Lewis Truesdale, in addition to their farming activities, had become quite involved in breeding and raising mules. During the 1850s, this business moved the center of